Radio telephone communication systems (such as second generation cordless telephone, or Digital European Cordless Telephone) comprise a plurality of base sites (also known as telepoints) and a plurality of radio telephones (also known as handsets). Taking second generation cordless telephone (CT2) as an example, the users of the CT2 radio telephones communicate with users of other radio telephones or subscribers in a public switched telephone network (PSTN) via the base sites. A large number of base sites is desirable in certain areas (such as shopping malls) where many persons are likely to place radio telephone calls because that eliminates gaps in coverage by the base site network. However, these base sites are not synchronized with each other. When a radio telephone user wishes to place a call, he or she causes the radio telephone unit to transmit a channel request signal. Since each base site is monitoring the channels of the CT2 system independently, the base site that grants the channel request is not necessarily the one closest to the radio telephone unit transmitting the channel request signal. That may be a problem because the user may move out of range of the base site, thus causing the communication link to be dropped. On the other hand, if the nearest base station had made the channel grant, the radio telephone user would have been able to continue the communication while moving in a greater area. Accordingly, a need exists for a method and apparatus for acquiring a communication channel that overcomes the above problem.